Sister Madsen loves dogs and is a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has been called to serve as a missionary in the Illinois Chicago West Mission

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Way up I feel blessed June 13, 2016

Hullo everybody

I'm not really sure where to start with this week but it has beengreat! I'm sure it has been obvious to all of you but I've been havinga hard time getting humble and finding joy in being obedient andfollowing all the little rules that come with being a missionary. Soin efforts to have a better attitude as I crawl down this long road ofhumility I started marking and underlining and circling andwhatevering all of the blessings that Heavenly Father promises us aswe are obedient. I started out with my patriarchal blessing and thenmoved on to the white handbook and then Preach My Gospel and it hasnow spun out of control and I mark any time that a blessing ispromised in whatever I am reading, and you know what, WE ARE SOBLESSED. It probably sounds corny but I can't think of any other wayto put it, everything that Heavenly Father does is to bless us. Thesabbath day? He has set aside one day of the week just for you so thatyou can leave your worries and stress of the world and focus on thethings that will truly bring you peace (mark 2:27) every commandmentwe are given is to help us, and then on top of that he gives us moreblessings for keeping his commandments!! It's madness. A week or soago I was reading in Mosiah 2 and it talks a lot about it how much weare blessed. There is no way on heaven or earth we could ever pay backHeavenly Father for everything he has given us. We could dedicateevery day and moment of our entire lives to serving him and it stillwouldn't be enough! Because He has given us life, and strength, andsupports us in all things, He is helping us help Him (Mosiah 2:21)this is a terrible analogy but I am using it anyways. We have a newmission wide rule that everyone has to wear bug spray at all times andlast week there was a couple days where it was in the hundreds and thehumidity was kickin in and I felt like I was on the verge of melting.It was bad news. And then we had to put bug spray on. And I felt sodisgusting and sticky and mad and we were walking around and I wasjust in a bad mood. I was really annoyed and thinking about all therules and everything that we have to follow and the spirit kind ofknocked me upside the head and I got over myself I put it togetherthat we weren't given this bug spray rule to make us be annoyed andgross. It's literal only purpose is to help us and protect us. Andit's the same with the commandments. Heavenly Father doesn't give uscommandments to make us miserable, he gives them us to bless andprotect us. He asks that we pray so that we can let him know what'sgoing on and ask him for help. And he will help us. AND he will blessus for keeping his commandment on top of that. It's probably a reallyselfish way to look at obedience and the commandments but it is whereI'm at right now. Baby steps.. 😏

In other news I am feeling a lot better. You probably didn't know thatthere was anything wrong with me and honestly for a long time neitherdid I. But since college I have been feeling sort of off, the thingsthat used to make me happy and I enjoyed doing weren't anymore, Ididn't have any energy to do anything, and I was generally feelingbleh. And I couldn't figure out what it was or what had happened thatmade me start feeling this way, there was just something missing and Ididn't know where to find it. I still don't know what it is or whathas happened but I am starting to feel more like my old self again ina good way. Being outside makes me happy, talking to people makes mehappy, dogs have always made me happy, but those little things thatused to put a smile on my face that weren't cutting it for me anymoreare starting to come back. I just feel more in tune with everything. Idunno what to say!! I'm just happy! And happy to be happy. I don'tknow why or what happened that brought this about but I know that itis all God. I know that what is said in Matthew 10:39 is true.Heavenly Father can make us into the person we want to be(as well as aperson even better than that) only if we will let him. I have wantedand tried to get back to feeling this way for so long, and it wasn'tuntil I came out here and started serving the Lord that it happened.As we lose our life in serving Christ we will ultimately find it. AndI am grateful. I'm grateful to be a missionary and I'm grateful forall the blessings that I have been given that I know about and theblessings that I have been given that I don't know about or evenrealize.Sister Ensign shared this quote that I really liked

I am who I amI am who I wasI am who I want to be.This can be taken a lot of different ways but essential this is how I took it-I am who I am: I accept who I am at this present timeI am who I was: I am still the person that I was in the pre existence,I am and can be as righteous and good as I was before I came to thislife. Only Heavenly Father knows who that person is though, he knowsus better than we know ourselves because we can't remember. Thereforehe is the only person who can truly know how to make us happyI am who I want to be: I am in control of my actions and responsiblefor who I am. I can be whoever I want to be, but it is up to me.

We can become the people we want to. If we will let Heavenly Father show us how.

Ok that was corny bye I'm sorry I hope you all have a good week I love you

Sister Madsen

It's only JUNE but we were dying of the heat.A lot of other things happened this week:1. I have mucho mosquito bites2. A woman came into the church building very emotionally distraughtduring one of our meetings and sister ensign and I took her to one ofthe class rooms and had a lesson with her. Very quickly we realizedthat she was very intoxicated and very homeless. She was very sweetthough and said it was an honor to be considered one of our sisters.We invited her to church the following day and she promised she wouldcome.She did not come3 we have been walking around forest preserves everyday and EVERYONEHERE ROLLER SKATES I LOVE ILLINOIS.4 we found out we had to teach Sunday school literally seconds beforeit started.5 one of the members we have been working with brought his not member60 year old dad to our young single adults sacrament meeting.6. We made enchiladas